Raise your hand if you’ve got a smartphone next to you. This one’s for you.
“Brain Drain,” a 2017 research paper co-authored by Rady School professor Ayelet Gneezy and Ph.D. graduate Kristen Duke (Ph.D. ’19), was recently recognized as having the highest social impact according to a best in class survey by Financial Times.
Gneezy and Duke’s research tested the “brain drain” hypothesis, that the “mere presence” of your smartphone might make it more difficult for you to engage with the task at hand, even when you’re resisting the temptation to actually check your phone. (Their research suggests that it does.)
Now raise your hand if you’ve just thrown your phone out the window.
To measure social impact, Financial Times first asked business schools to submit up to five research papers published within the last five years for consideration. Using Altmetrics, Financial Times measured “the online resonance that each [research paper] had with the wider world beyond universities,” including data such as academic citations, blog references and tweets. “Brain Drain” received an Altmetric score of 3956, more than five times higher than the second-highest-scoring paper.
You’ve rehearsed your pitch over and over again to prepare for the big meeting. So, how do you tell your story without sounding rehearsed?
Let’s ask Associate Professor of Marketing Rachel Gershon.
Gershon’s research focuses on understanding and improving human decision making with a focus on social and prosocial behavior. Some of her research looks at perceptions of authenticity.
In the paper Twice-told tales: Self-repetition decreases observer assessments of performer authenticity, Gershon and her co-author describe how we generally assume social interactions to be unique. When we find out that someone is repeating themselves, we find them to be less authentic, and in turn, we feel less likely to want to engage with them in the future.
Watch the video below for a research-backed tip on how you can repeat a performance—and still appear authentic—the next time you speak in public.
How to Increase Your Authenticity When Speaking in Public was last modified: February 25th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
Lessons shared by male allies at the ASCEND Executive Women’s Forum:
“A year from now, we want to be able to say, ‘Yes, look at the changes that we were able to make in the community. Look at how we were able to put this into action.’” Tasha Ross, Director of Corporate Relations for the Rady School of Management addresses a room of 40 women at the recent ASCEND Executive Women’s forum.
ASCEND, a triannual event produced by and at the Rady School of Management gathers select women in executive leadership positions across San Diego to evolve beyond discussion of the challenges they face and move toward pushing boundaries and solving issues.
The January 2020 ASCEND Forum focused on engaging with male allies to change the conversation – to see more inclusive leadership across San Diego businesses. First, Professor Uri Gneezy presented research about workplace inequities that he and his colleague, Professor Ayelet Gneezy, are conducting for a forthcoming book. For instance, most office spaces have the temperature controls set at a lower temperature, one that is often too cold for female employees. While this is a small example, it is one that most can relate to and highlights some of the questions posed in the book.
Three others: Lenny Comma, CEO of Jack in the Box; Navy Captain Al Worthy and William Molloie, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers were invited to speak on a panel as male allies.
Facilitated by Panthera Leadership CEO and Executive Coach, Felicia Lyon, and including questions from forum members, the panel offered actionable insights about what men and women of the workforce can do to acknowledge bias and facilitate change in the workforce.
1. Don’t put the pressures of the world on yourself.
Tell us if this sounds familiar. Lunch time is approaching
and you have a long to-do list before the next big deadline. You head to the
kitchen to heat up your food, which you’ll eat at your desk while you work. In
the kitchen, you run into a colleague who asks how your presentation went
yesterday.
“Fine,” you say. “I’ll send you a recap before the end of
the day.” The microwave chimes, you grab your food and keep walking.
Your interactions are brief and transactional. Who has time
for anything else?
“The outcome is that relationships aren’t built within brief interactions, and if you just take a little pressure off of yourself, you may be able to build stronger relationships,” says Comma. “Trust and believe in yourself. No one is going to be perfect. Don’t put pressure on yourself just because you believe that the world is putting pressure on you. Instead, be yourself. People are most attracted to you and want you to do your best work for the organization because you are you. If you can’t do your best work there and be you, then go somewhere else.”
2. Expand your network.
In a recent study, LinkedIn
reported that among people who applied for jobs directly on their platform,
those who asked for a referral from one of their connections were nine times
more likely to get the position.
The caveat here is that our networks typically consist of
people who look just like us. “Ducks pick ducks,” said Captain Worthy. This
perpetuates a lack of diversity as employees move—or don’t—up the ranks of an
organization. And a lack of diversity is straight-up bad for business.
“When there’s a decision to be made, different perspectives only make it better,” Molloie said. “That requires breaking the mold of ‘I’m comfortable with people like me and we all get the same answer.’ Because that might not be the right answer.”
Comma adds: “When you have multiple women on a team, the conversation tends to get more real. Women have had to navigate through the ‘good old boy’ conversation. Women have figured out how to challenge and change the conversation more than men who haven’t had to go through as much adversity. The process tends to be richer.”
3. Don’t overlook the middle.
From 2011-2013, Captain Worthy served as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Naval Aviation Enterprise. After every forum or program they produced, Captain Worthy said he always asked one question: What do we do now?
“We realized that the only time men were hearing this conversation was when they were already at the top,” Captain Worthy said. They were eager to get it done, but in a 100,000-person organization, how do you instill change?”
Realizing this, Worthy’s team began bringing men in middle management to the diversity and inclusion conversation. “The men in the middle need to grow with the women next to them so that the culture changes below and these managers effect change as they rise through the ranks,” he said. “It can’t just come from the top.”
4. Practice transparency.
Years back as a manager working his way to partner, Molloie coached
his child’s soccer team. Driving from the office to soccer practice took at
least an hour and 15 minutes, which meant that three days a week, he needed to
leave the office at 3 p.m. to get to practice on time.
After about a year of “sneaking out early,” Molloie found himself waiting for the elevator next to a PwC practice leader. Molloie immediately thought, ‘Oh crap, I hope he doesn’t ask me where I’m going.’ The practice leader was anxiously hitting the button, and said, ‘If this elevator doesn’t come, I’m going miss rugby practice! I have to get home!’”
Molloie realized he need not hide where he was going. Seeing
a leader in his organization take the time he needed—and not apologize for
it—made Molloie realize he could do the same.
“If you’re not transparent, you’re prolonging the projection that ‘this never happens,’” Molloie said. “Although this is hard, if it’s not acceptable , you don’t want to be there. So be transparent. Only good can come from that. It may not feel like that all the time, but only good will come from that.”
At Rady, we believe in community partnerships. If you would like to connect to discuss ways to engage with the Rady School of Management, please contactcorporateengagement@rady.ucsd.edu.
Four Tips for Facilitating Change in the Workplace was last modified: February 21st, 2020 by Camille Cannon
Career fairs can be nerve-wracking affairs. We all want to make a great first impression on potential employers. So, how do we do that? We asked several accounting professionals attending a recent Meet the Firms — an accounting career fair hosted by the Rady School to introduce undergraduate accounting minors and MPAc students to dozens of employers — to share their best pieces of advice for students.
What employers want to see at a career fair:
“Someone that we can get along with in the workplace and that would have a professional demeanor when we place them in front of clients.” – Natalie Allen, UC San Diego alum and audit associate at KPMG
“Come out, be your true self. Definitely be prepared. Have some questions prepared for us to give feedback so we can get a dialogue. But then also ask us about who we are.” – Nick Winicki, UC San Diego alum and senior audit associate at Deloitte
“Communication skills. Definitely. We always say that you can always teach someone something, but it’s hard to teach soft skills to students.” -Rey Bada, staff accountant at Weworski & Associates
Next steps after a career fair:
“I think the students should think about what they’re most interested in and what they’re looking for in a career. If they’re in accounting, think about whether you’re interested in tax or audit so you can find the right path for you.” – Megan Chatman, tax manager at Gatto, Pope & Walwick, LLP
“Make sure you get business cards and then follow up with them afterwards. So every follow-up email I sent, I tried to include something we talked about so they’d remember me.” – Nick Winicki
Best advice for a job interview:
“Just be yourself, be punctual. Do some research about the firm and come up with really good questions to ask the interviewer and just try to make an impact.” – Michelle Koh, tax content analyst at Intuit
“It’s fine to be nervous. It’s fine. It happens to everyone. But the opportunities are out there and you have to be a go-getter. Go for that.” – Jose Palacios, UC San Diego alum and commercial credit underwriter at California Bank and Trust
“Be yourself. I think we all have a tendency to get nervous during a job interview but do what you can to keep your nerves calm and just really be who you are.” – Megan Chatman
“If you don’t know kind of the ins and outs of the bank and have really looked into why you’re excited to work here, it’s hard for us to see you in those positions.” – Nicole Wells, campus recruiter at California Bank & Trust
How to advance in your career:
“Participate some way in the community, whether it’s through volunteering time in the nonprofit, or being able to have a little bit of background of what it is to be in the workforce and become a little bit more knowledgeable.” – Cynthia Solomon, UC San Diego alum and relationship banker at California Bank & Trust
Accounting Professionals Share Their Best Career Advice for Students was last modified: March 4th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
We all know the struggle of sticking to New Year’s resolutions. We start strong, and then by February, our willpower to resist a plate of french fries or commit to a gym routine is gone faster than, well, said plate of fries.
What can we do to make healthy habits actually stick?
Associate Professor of Marketing Wendy Liu has answers. Liu specializes in consumer judgment and decision making, focusing on the cognitive and emotional basis of consumer choice, social interactions, and well-being.
Her recent research topics include decision making under complexity, self control decisions, and the role of emotions and social motivations in customer behavior. She also studies consumer behavior in medical and health domains.
Watch the clip below for a quick tip on how to see your new habits all the way through December.
This Quick Tip Can Help You Form Healthier Habits was last modified: February 5th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
Updated 3/26/20: This post has been edited to reflect that the FlexWeekend MSBA program runs on Saturdays.
For the fourth year in a row, the job search website Glassdoor reported that Data Scientist is the best job in America. “This is due to the high demand, high salary, and high job satisfaction,” Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain told CNBC. Several other data-driven roles also made the list: including data engineer at #8 and data analyst at #31.
There’s no denying that data is very much en vogue.
“All organizations are collecting more and more data. It’s
never going to be less,” says Vincent Nijs, Associate Professor of Marketing
and co-director of the Rady School of Management’s Master of Science in
Business Analytics program. “In this competitive environment, what skill set do
you bring?”
According to a 2017 report by IBM, 39% of data scientists
and advanced analyst positions require a master’s or PhD. “I think of business
analytics as data science specifically for business,” says Nijs. “Our
curriculum is built on business problems that companies face in practice, those
that companies are willing to pay people to help solve them.” And pay they do.
“Continually learning and adding new knowledge in the field
of data science and analytics is a great long-term personal development
strategy that pays,” says Forbes writer
Louis Columbus. Indeed, that Glassdoor report shows the median base salary for
a data analyst at $60,000, but a data scientist can expect to see closer to
$110,000*.
“One piece of advice I always offer to students on the job
market is to try and start at the highest level possible,” says Raymond Petit,
Executive Director of the Rady School’s MSBA program. He has strong evidence to
support that advice. “Among graduates who report, 100 hundred percent of our
MSBA students are placed in jobs after graduation,” many of them in data
scientist roles.
“These companies see how our graduates our fulfilling their
needs and doing a great job at it,” says Terrence August, Associate Professor
of Innovation, Technology and Operations, and co-director of the MSBA program.
The Rady School of Management is currently accepting applications for its full-time, 11-month Master of Science in Business Analytics degree program and its FlexWeekend MSBA program. The 12-24 month FlexWeekend MSBA program will cover the same curriculum as the full-time program, with classes offered on alternating Saturday-Sundays. This new program will be the first of its kind in California, making it possible for professionals to continue working full-time while they pursue their MSBA degree.
If you’re deciding whether or not to pursue your Master of
Science of Business Analytics, here are a few questions to consider:
1. Do you want to earn
a higher salary?
*See above.
2. Do you want to be
able to communicate data more effectively?
“When we developed the curriculum for the MSBA programs, we talked
to a number of different large corporations in the area,” says Nijs. “We asked
them what they’d be looking for from our graduates. They talked about a lot of
things like looking at data, being able to analyze the data, but also very
importantly—being able to communicate the insights from that data back to
decision makers.”
This is a skill set that Rady MSBA graduate Josh Bhatnagar says he uses every day as a Data Analyst at Mazda North American Operations. In addition to supporting the company’s quantitative needs such as data accessibility, modeling and structuring, communication is critical to his job function. “I maintain ongoing dialogue with domain owners and IT to prioritize organizational data requirements, design strategic data solutions and implement those solutions,” he says. “Without my time at Rady, I would not have had the foundation necessary to be successful in my current role.”
3. Do you want more
confidence in your technical skills?
Rady MSBA graduate Swagata Chakraborty was working as an
analyst in Citibank’s Global Decision Management team when she found herself contemplating
how to move forward in her career. “I felt that people who already had a
specialization relevant to their role were somewhat more confident and had more
clarity about their role.” After graduating, Chakraborty secured a Data
Scientist position with Walmart Labs. “Concepts like the statistical significance
of the data, sampling methods for training and test data, working with
unstructured data, training machine-learning models and confidence interval
analysis are some of the topics which I learned through my coursework at Rady
and apply on a daily basis [at work].”
4. Do you want the
opportunity to expand your network?
Whether you pursue your MSBA in the full-time or in the
FlexWeekend program, the Rady Capstone Project provides the opportunity to
solve real business problems faced by real companies such as HP, Petco, Target,
and Thermo Fisher. Students work in teams of three-four for ten weeks,
ultimately to present their findings to the company. “It’s an experience that
very much feels like working for a company as opposed to just a school project,”
says August. And better yet, the capstone can become the stepping stone to your
next career move.
“Companies are setting up this capstone-internship-job pipeline with us so that they can start to build their analytics teams in a very safe, smart way and make sure they’re getting the right talent for what they need,” says Petit. That’s exactly what happened for Rady MSBA graduate Radha Srinivasan, who worked on a capstone project for Thermo Fisher, was offered a data scientist job upon graduation, and is now their Senior Data Scientist (one year after graduating).
5. Do you want to drive
up value in an organization?
“It’s great if you’re able to program something interesting
in Python that solves a problem, but if nobody wants to use it, we’re not creating
any value for anybody,” says Nijs.
Let’s look at that another way. According to a 2013 McKinsey
report, “By 2020, the wider adoption of big-data analytics could increase
annual GDP in retailing and manufacturing by up to $325 billion and save as much
as $285 billion in the cost of health care and government services … Big data
promises big things—but only if organizations have the right people in place
who know what to do with it.”
Hmm. Sounds like a job for a Rady MSBA graduate.
Learn more about the Rady School of Management’s MSBA program here.
Five Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re Pursuing a Career in Data was last modified: March 26th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As the holidays approach, however, you may find yourself with a to-do list longer than Santa’s Nice List—and that’s why we’re here to help! Below you’ll find innovative gifts for your loved ones, all of which were created by companies founded by Rady alumni. We hope this guide helps make your holiday season bright, and we wish you all the best in the New Year!
Last Christmas, you gave kids new clothes and the very next day … they outgrew them! Skip the store and save by shopping “pre-loved” finds, delivered to your door.
Treat someone you love (or yourself) to some pampering—haircuts, manicures, beard trims and more—at the mobile salon that’s easily accessible to busy professionals.
Take something off your loved one’s to-do list and book an oil change on their behalf! These automotive experts bring their services to office parks and businesses across San Diego for a quick and convenient change during the work day.
For the friend whose New Year’s Resolution is (always) to drink less caffeine, try Cascaraa, an antioxidant rich tea made from coffee fruit that contains about one third the caffeine of your average cup of joe.
No holiday season is complete without snow … shaved snow, that is! Get the family together for a creamy frozen dessert that would satisfy even Santa’s sweet tooth.
Robert Yang MBA ’11
These Companies Founded by Rady Alumni Can Make Your Holiday Shopping Easier was last modified: December 10th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
At 3 p.m. on Fridays, employees at LinkedIn’s San Francisco
headquarters step away from their keyboards and gather on the 17th
floor terrace to enjoy each other’s company. They mingle with colleagues in
different departments. They savor a drink or some snacks. And they soak up the
glimmer and bustle of the SoMa neighborhood below. Doesn’t sound too bad, eh?
In late October, Rady School students had the opportunity to
immerse themselves in LinkedIn’s culture (and others) during the Bay Area Trek
organized by Rady’s Career Management Center. Over the course of two days, Rady
students (primarily MBA students, but also those in other master’s programs) visited
LinkedIn, Facebook, KLA, Komodo Health, Salesforce, AirBNB, Flex and Intel,
touring the state-of-the-art office spaces, asking questions of the working
professionals—many of whom are UC San Diego or Rady alum—and getting a clearer
picture of where their degree from Rady School of Management can take them.
We caught up with two students who attended—Ping Gu and Sitong Liu (MFin ’20) to ask them about their most memorable moments and why they encourage more Rady students to make the trip.
Which companies did you visit and why did you select them?
Gu: I visited Facebook and LinkedIn. I saw the big names and I didn’t think too much! I knew I wanted to go visit these companies.
Liu: I went to LinkedIn, Komodo and KLA. I was exciting to learn about them all. They offered a broad range of experiences. I was curious to know what kind of career advice they would give us.
What left the biggest impression on you from these visits?
Gu: At LinkedIn, all three speakers were UC San Diego alum. They were so supportive of us and said they see Rady growing very fast. Eric Darwin (Head of Corporate Development) shared his story of transitioning from investment banking to working at Salesforce and now doing mergers and acquisitions at LinkedIn. It painted a picture for us of how we can navigate our own careers. After the session, we got a tour of the building. Because it was Friday, we also got to join in on their regular happy hour on the 17th floor. That was so cool! People from every floor of the building came up to join.
Rady students enjoy the views at LinkedIn’s San Francisco headquarters
Liu:I did not know what to expect from Komodo, because they are a small firm, but they ended up being my favorite part of the trip! They have about 200 employees. There were three presenters—two were remote who are based in New York. They shared what it was like to move from a big company to a startup, and then grow in the new role from startup to small company. The employees were all very open. We had a short tour of their office and got to spend most of the time asking questions, even common interview questions, such as how to respond to “Tell me about yourself,” or what kind of opportunities I could be looking for based on my interests. One of their presenters, Brice, who is Head of Engineering, is also involved with recruiting, so he had a lot of great insight to share. I asked the question, “What can I do if I don’t like coding but I do like analytical work?” Brice followed up after the visit with a thoughtful email response to that question and it has really helped me in my career planning.
Komodo Health welcomes Rady students.
What interactions did you have with Rady alum during the Trek?
Gu: On Thursday night, there was an alumni mixer at Atwater Tavern in San Francisco. Dean Ordóñez was there too! I got to meet a lot of Rady alum working in the Bay Area. Some alum even drove from San Jose—almost two hours with traffic—just to come to the event. I talked to Jessica from KLA about Rady life and how much she loved it. I also met Jessica’s classmate Chiara (18). She’s doing consulting for the nonprofit sector and she told me about some really exciting job opportunities. In that moment I realized how networking can work for everyone. She said they needed someone with an accounting background. I studied finance and accounting as an undergraduate. Sometimes you don’t expect too much from just talking, but that is the magic of networking!
All of the alum shared an appreciation for Rady. They love Rady. They love San Diego. And they know what to expect from Rady graduates. They all showed a willingness to help one another.
KLA in Milpitas.
Rady students join alum Jessica Bonilla in KLA’s cleanroom.
Liu: At KLA, three employees—two who are Rady alum—made themselves available for a Q&A session. They offered us great advice about how to negotiate with a supplier. During their presentation, they showed us this video, The Monkey Business Illusion, to demonstrate that if you focus too much on one thing during negotiations, you end up ignoring some really important aspects of the transaction.
What did you gain from going on the Bay Area Trek?
Gu: The company visits allow you to not only learn what these employers do, but then you get to explore what you want to do and what direction you want to go after graduation. At LinkedIn, for example, each speaker had a different route getting to where they are today. Nobody had a typical path. Hearing about their processes and how they made it work opened my mind to what kind of career path I can pursue in the future. If you don’t go on a trip like this, you’ll never get to hear those stories. And if you weren’t attracted by the big company names alone, it’s also a great opportunity to meet Rady alumni and students from other departments.
Liu: Don’t underestimate what you can get out of visiting a small company, or a startup! [On the Trek], you really get to know the companies on a deep level. You can build personal connections with some of the presenters. This is a rare opportunity to take these tours. When you read online about what companies are like or what the culture is, the answer comes for a PR department, or maybe someone outside of the people who are doing the actual work that interests you. On the Bay Area Trek, you get to meet them. You get an authentic answer.
Your Invitation to LinkedIn’s 17th Floor Terrace Awaits was last modified: December 10th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
“As a marine, the reality is, ‘I’m going to war. I’m going to battle. I’m going to defend this country and if I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. And then you die of a disease that you could do nothing about.”
In 2010, Clay Treska (MBA ’19) was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had served since 1998 in the U.S. Marine Corps, most of that time spent as a counter intelligence agent. Treska’s propensity to ask questions and seek answers led him to challenge his diagnosis, research his options, and ultimately save his life. His experience surviving the disease—and witnessing it take his father’s life and the life of fellow marines—led him to co-found Family Proud, an app with a mission to connect patients to healthcare resources, and to foster a network of support so that no patient feels like they’re battling illness alone.
“I was able to beat my terminal diagnosis and I wanted to understand why that was. I wanted to be able to share that with other people,” Treska says. The same year he was diagnosed, he graduated from San Diego State University with the intention of becoming a physical therapist. After volunteering and interning with UC San Diego Health, where he helped advise cancer patients and counsel mourning families after loss, he decided that he wanted to pursue a different kind of career in healthcare.
“I saw that the amount of good that you can do from an executive perspective in healthcare is just so far sweeping. It takes one meeting and one decision and you can impact tens of thousands of people and the future of healthcare. I realized that getting an MBA and learning about business was the path that I wanted to take,” he says.
Treska researched graduate business programs across California including those at Stanford, USC, University of San Diego and San Diego State University. “All of the [other] programs that I saw were missing those key components towards helping my own business,” he says. Rady’s emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation appealed to him. “I made the decision that I need to go to Rady if I want to not only excel in the healthcare environment, but also have the opportunity to start up a company.”
Treska enrolled in Rady’s FlexWeekend MBA program and
continued working full-time in healthcare. He met classmate and Family Proud CEO
and co-founder Jaden Risner, and the two of them developed the business plan
for Family Proud through Rady’s Lab-to-Market course sequence.
“[At
Rady], you’re not just getting education from the class itself and from the
course material, but you’re getting education from your peers. One of the
greatest aspects of the program is how you realize that you can’t
possibly know everything there is to know about business. But that’s not the
point. The point is to understand it enough to be able to have conversations
with people, find those people that are smarter than you in these specific
disciplines and have them help you work on those aspects.”
As a young company with limited resources, only about a third of the Family Proud team are currently full-time employees. The rest are volunteers who give their time because they believe in the product, says Treska. “Everybody on this team, or someone close to them, has dealt with some type of an ailment or a struggle and thought that this is a service that would have helped them,” he says. “We’re all growing through our own challenges.”
Ultimately, Treska says that the goal for Family Proud is to help make high quality healthcare accessible to anyone. “Everybody should receive the highest quality medicine, the highest quality care, regardless of who you are, regardless of what type of insurance you have, what your pedigree is, what your job is, where you came from or who you know. This is our way of being able to make sure that everybody receives the highest quality care, inside and outside of their provider.”
It’s
Treska’s desire to help other patients that motivates him to keep building the
business.
“What more could you possibly ask from a program?” he says. “To take something from it that you can continue to grow and prosper, something other than the degree itself. That’s the most valuable thing that Rady gave me: to take a dream and turn it into a reality.”
Cancer Survivor Clay Treska Co-Founded an App to Help Patients Get the Support They Need was last modified: December 4th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
“My position in life is to take challenges as chances and try to use every opportunity that I have,” says Arina Bogomolova, a PhD in economics candidate from Lomonosov Moscow State University and data analyst with Usalitics Research. “My favorite phrase is ‘Why Not?’,” she says. In Moscow, Arina studies the commercialization of university research. Arina’s open mind and research background is what brought her to Rady School, where she has spent the past four weeks supporting the California Institute of Innovation and Development (CIID) as a participant of the Professional Fellow Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. As a Professional Fellow, Arina is here to share her expertise and gain an understanding of how research and development functions inside of American universities. We caught up with Arina to ask about her research, the similarities and differences she sees between universities and what she likes most about San Diego.
Describe the work you’re doing here as a Professional Fellow.
I’m here to explore the system and think about the ways to make scientists in Russia more active in the commercialization of their research. There are professors who sit in their room and research and tell nobody. They might publish, because they get bonuses for that, but they are not active. At my job [in Moscow], I’m participating in writing strategies of development for Russian universities. I can only recommend on how to make science more competitive. Universities have some opportunities to support science, so it’s ultimately up to them.
What are some differences you’ve observed between U.S and Russian university systems?
As students [in Russia], we have more limited choices in courses. Here, you can rate your professors and lecturers, and they compete with one another for money and grants. In Russia, professors and lecturers have a guaranteed salary, but it is less than here.
Have you noticed similarities?
During a workshop for StartR students, I was surprised to hear the lecturer teaching Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas. It is the same thing I teach at my university.
What else have you observed?
Professors here interact with students a lot. We don’t have such a thing. Lecturers, they give information. They read their lectures. Here, I observed a class that was playing some games. It was unusual because I’m used to it being more serious. I would like to add some life in our classes too.
What have you enjoyed most about San Diego?
First one is weather. It’s already snowing in Moscow. My first host here was a really interesting woman Christine, who had traveled all around the world. She told us a lot of stories. I was there for two days with another girl from Ukraine. The first day, Christine took us to the beach. You can really feel how powerful the ocean is. It’s really calm there.
I also experienced my first real Halloween here. When I was walking around campus I saw people carving pumpkins and I asked, “What are you doing?” They explained and asked me if I wanted to make one and I said, “Why not?” So, this was my first Halloween pumpkin. At my host family’s house, I handed out candies. In Russia, there are no trick-or-treaters.
What do you plan to do after completing your PhD?
First of all, I’ll finish my Phd thesis and get a driver’s license. But I have no long-term plans. Russians more believe in fate than Americans. That’s a difference. Americans say you should take your life in your hands and achieve the American dream making sacrifices (like in the La La Land movie). In Russia, you should work hard, you should do your best, but everyone has a fate, so you shouldn’t be too nervous about the future because everything will work out how it’s meant to.
Rady School Hosts Visiting Professional Fellow Arina Bogomolova was last modified: November 14th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
